Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] ntnic: add PMD driver

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas.monjalon@6wind.com>]

2016-08-29 06:22, Finn Christensen:
> From: Stephen Hemminger [mailto:stephen@networkplumber.org]
> > What is the license of this driver suite?
> 
> The driver suite is a closed-source driver, which is not free downloadable.
> 
> > IMHO the upstream DPDK shouldn't be a platform for non-free driver suites.
> 
> This is our first steps towards opensource, and our upcoming NIC is
> partly build on HW and SW from our Accelerator products.
> And since we already bypasses the kernel effectively in our driver,
> this first solution for a DPDK PMD driver, has been built on top of
> that software suite.
> We like the idea of opensource, but we will need to do the transition
> stepwise, considering our NIC product.

I think the first step should be to free the lowest level, here the
code you build your drivers on.

> We have seen large performance improvements (x4-x7 times with 64 byte
> packets compared to a std NIC in a phy-ovs-vm-ovs-phy setup utilizing
> a modified DPDK), and this is the main motivation to go forward and
> try to push our contribution to DPDK upstream.
> This is the first step of contributions that we want to make.
> This DPDK PMD solution is not compileable unless you have our driver.

Not being able to compile the PMD is a real problem for maintenance.
The PMD would be considered as dead code, so is forbidden.

> We may need to make that possible, so that a free downloadable driver
> can be retrieved.
> 
> Once this is said, we thought that the DPDK was BSD licensed and I must
> admit that we have failed to see this limitation that you are mentioning.
> Is there another license or agreement text that we need to read?

Maybe you'll find some interesting parts in the contributing guide.
But honestly, I think you have already done the right thing in your case:
you sent some code and open the discussion :)
Now you just need to enable a free compilation environment for your patch.
Thanks